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People who are engage in tennis are likely to be middle class in the society. It is because the cost associated with tennis. First, the cost for tennis rackets. Second the rent for tennis court. Unlike football or basketball, in which the cost of the ball is shared by a large group of people, everyone has to have a tennis racket. Also, because of the limited tennis courts in rural areas, it discourages many rural residents from participating in tennis.

Personally, I choose to participate in tennis because of three major reasons: pressure from peer group, social trend, and family’s encouragement. I picked up the tennis racket five years ago. I had no interest in the game. I did so simply to support my friend’s tennis club. They needed enough people to get funding. Furthermore, most of my friends in high school were tennis players. If I do not play tennis, I was afraid that I might be isolated. Playing tennis was certainly a need for socialization with fellow students before I finally developed my interest in the game. To some extent, I think I am also a byproduct of “Michael Chang phenomenon” as well. Because of Chang’s success in tennis despite the disadvantage of physical statue, I wanted to try this challenging game as well. While most people around me were talking about Chang and tennis, it would be to my advantage to try this game and experience the magic. Last but not least, I started this activity because I also wanted to satisfy by parents’ numerous requests for me to get more physical exercises.

One of my best tennis partners, Joshua, has chosen to engage in tennis because he thinks tennis is a cool game. He definitely thinks tennis is a trendy activity and he particularly likes the good looking outfit, tennis rackets. More importantly, Joshua thinks playing tennis can help him to date with girls because of tennis’ high status in Asian culture. In China, tennis is regarded as a high-class sport. Unlike table tennis and basketball, which are classified as common sports, playing tennis is like a sign of good taste, which improves a person’s social status or social class. It is interesting to note that Joshua has not played any tennis lately because he has changed to soccer for some more attractive jerseys and the rising popularity of soccer among girls. Sport, to some degree, and to some people, is a trendy hobby in society.

Now a days, tennis is so popular that people from different parts of the world engage in this exciting activity. Although each individual may have a special reason for engaging in tennis, people with the same cultural background are likely to have similar reasons. Significant variations tend to exist across different cultural groups.

Cultural relativism is the perception that the values of a specific culture are relatively similar and unique compared to those of other cultures. Because of such uniqueness, it is essential to adjust one’s own assumption in order to study or understand a different culture. According to an international survey done by Tennis magazine in 1993, in terms of tennis, Australians and the Swedish view it as national sports. It is like ice hockey to Canadians, basketballs to American and gymnastics to Romanians. Many teenagers choose to play tennis in Australia and Sweden because of the success of Bjorn Bjork and Roy Emerson. Bjorn Bjork, a legend Swedish player who won the Wimbledon 5 time in a row plus 4 French Open single titles. Roy Emerson, arguably the best player of all time, holds the men’s record of most single championship of grand slam at 12. Australian and Swedish kids grow up with the knowledge that world champions of tennis were born and raised in their home country and with the dream of continuing the legend. In addition, because the importance of tennis in Australia and Sweden, children are exposed to tennis in their schools. Because of the early exposure to the game and some famous legendary players in the nations’ history, the young generation of Australians and Swedish continue to see tennis as their national sports or even a tradition. In Hong Kong and Mainland China, reasons for playing tennis are a different story. There, tennis is a symbol of social status. Although in recent years, this special and somewhat erroneous feeling has been on the decline. Yet, tennis is still seen as a high-class activity in many traditional Chinese’s mind. Canadians do not have such strong cultural relativism in tennis. People play tennis for different reasons and few of them are significant or special enough to be considered as cultural values.

The good news about cultural relativism in respect to tennis is that all the values attached to tennis among different cultures are unique and important in nature. Despite the variations in social norms about tennis in different countries, there is not a culture that claims that its reason is better or more important than those of others are. Apparently, the theory of ethnocentrism does not easily apply to the cultural variations about tennis. Ethnocentrism is a thinking that one’s culture is better than others and the difficulty to accept the significance of other cultures. Ethnocentrism is always compared with cultural relativism because both theories emphasize cultural differences and ability to see or accept the importance of such differences. Because of Canada’s

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